Libya: 700 Daesh corpses stored in refrigerated containers

Hundreds of corpses of members of Daesh have been kept in refrigerated containers in the Libyan city of Misrata for the past year.

An AFP report published yesterday said some 700 bodies have been kept in refrigerated containers after the group was expelled from the coastal city of Sirte in December 2016.

The containers’ official at the city’s Anti-Organised Crime Centre, Ali Towailib, said DNA tests have been carried out on the corpses and the bodies have also been photographed.

Due to a lack of resources, several hundred bodies were abandoned in the city of Sirte following the US-led airstrikes against the group.

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At the time, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the country may someday become a magnet for tourists and investors after “removing the bodies”, sparking a storm of criticism.

According to Towailib, between 1,500 and 2,000 Daesh fighters were buried in Sirte.

He pointed out that three of the seven refrigeration containers have stopped working, prompting officials to move bodies to other refrigerators.

“The bags are numbered and classified, each body has its own file, DNA sample, documents or other marks collected,” he said, adding that “all the files were transferred to the Attorney General’s Office in Tripoli to determine whether the bodies would be buried and the location of burial.”

According to the documents found on the bodies, most of them came from Tunisia, Egypt and Sudan while some came from Libya. No families have come forward to request the release of the bodies.